Jaguar was today accused of “bullying” after the car giant took legal action against a fashionable Shoreditch bar.

Jaguar Shoes, which takes its name from a wholesale footwear business that used to occupy the premises, has been involved in a two-year legal tussle with the car brand.

A final ruling by the Intellectual Property Office is due within days, and the Kingsland Road establishment — which has been visited by celebrities including Kirsten Dunst, Alexa Chung and Amy Winehouse — could face being stripped of its name.

Nick Letchford, who founded the bar with his sister Teresa in 2001, said the car company was using “bullying tactics”.

He said: “We inherited the name and it is part of the history of the area, which was full of shoes and fashion wholesalers. Our customers are either angered or think it’s ridiculous.”

An online petition has received more than 1,000 signatures from people who say that they have never experienced any confusion between Jaguar Shoes and the car make.

Jaguar Shoes is also home to four full-time artists and the bar’s distinctive retro sign recently made a cameo appearance in an adidas television advert for the Olympic Games.

The dispute arose when the bar’s owners applied to protect the brand from imitation by registering it as a trademark.

Mr Letchford said: “Their position is to throw all their resources at the problem and hope it goes away. We just hope that Jaguar will see sense.”